Facebook community: 8 memorable patient handling calls

Check out some our members' memories of responses from over the years

For the latest in our 2012 Featured Product Focus series, focusing on patient handling, we asked our Facebook fans for their most memorable patient handling calls. Check them out and add your thoughts below!

Had to have the fire department cut a hole in the wall of a mobile home to get the patient out. The hallways were too narrow for the patient to walk down. He had been in the room for six years! — Ken Rasmussen

We were transporting a patient with a head injury from an MVA. The stretcher wheels did not fully open and lock while I was offloading him at the hospital. My partner closed his eyes as the stretcher hit the ground. Luckily no damage was done. — Arnold Bongani Matyila

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Got a medical call for dyspnea, working a two-person medic rig. Upon arrival, found a mid-30s, 5'5", 685 pound male in respiratory distress. Our cot was rated at 400 pounds. I Left my female partner to care for the patient, called the local fire deptartment for their 1,000 pound. stokes stretcher and lifting help, and proceeded to remove the antlers from our rig so the stokes would fit in the back. It ended up being a four-man lift to rig, then to the hospital. Fire department crew was great; they stayed with us to help move the patient back into the rig for transfer to the secondary facility. Sadly he passed away two days later, in essence from his obesity. He had gained over 300 pounds in just over a year after going from a factory job to driving a semi and never slowing down his eating. — Randy Bruns

Carrying a patient to the rig in three feet of snow. I couldn't see where we were walking, and had six guys holding the board. I was in the rear corner and yelled "Hole!" just as I sank another foot to a foot-and-a-half. Patient said she never knew someone had let go. Once all was said and done, we all had a good laugh at that one after checking to see if I had been injured! — Larry Broach

I once had a psych patient smack me in the back with my Lifepak 12 while I was talking to my sherriff officer on scene. Looked like an 80s action extra when I flipped out of the ambulance. Amazing how fast a "catatonic" patient will take off running when they learn they're getting an involuntary commit. — Chance Gearheart

Rappelling down the side of the Mike O'Callaghan Hospital with a patient that sustained a spinal injury after falling 10 feet from the roof of the elevator shaft to the main hospital roof. — Mark Riley

Getting an unconscious diabetic off the roof of a trailer park home via a stokes basket and ladder truck. — Amy Lynn Kaplan

Everyone that I lost. We all do our best to save a life, but it is quickly learned that we are not able to save them all. — Dave Saunders

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